India, S Korea agree on 80% tariff lines

FREE TRADE TALKS

India and South Korea have concluded the sixth round of negotiations in Seoul on the proposed free trade agreement. In the previous rounds of negotiations, both the countries had decided to open up 75 per cent to 80 per cent of the tariff lines for duty cuts and preferential treatment.

"The rest 25 per cent tariff lines will fall under the negative list," a commerce ministry official said. Items in the negative list would not see any kind of duty cuts.

The officials added that the present round was crucial because Indian and Korean negotiators discussed the wish list of items to be traded as per the proposed free trade agreement.

"Talks in the past five rounds went off smoothly. The present round is important as both the parties are negotiating various levels of duty cuts on items," the official added.

Negotiations between India and South Korea started in 2005, and are likely to be concluded by the end of 2007. South Korea's interests in the Indian market are on products related to auto components, synthetic resin, as well as cellphones, while major exports from India to Korea include items like oil seed, iron ore and cereals.

Indian exports to South Korea in 2005-06 stood at $1.81 billion, an increase of 74.6 per cent over the previous year's figure of $1.04 billion. South Korean imports to India in 2006-06 stood at $4.34 billion, which is a rise of 23.79 per cent over $3.5 billion in 2004-05.

Meanwhile, the second round of talks between India and Japan on the proposed comprehensive economic partnership agreement also started in Tokyo today.

The first round of talks, which saw the formation of working groups on trade in goods, trade in services, investment and bilateral cooperation, between the two countries took place in Delhi this February. The proposed free trade deal between the two countries was agreed during the visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Japan in December, 2006.

Major Indian exports to Japan include gems and jewellery, iron ore, and marine products, while major imports from Japan include machinery, electronic goods, iron and steel. India's exports to Japan in 2005-06 were valued at $2.4 billion, while imports stood at $3.5 billion.